Muscat: The Indian Social Club (ISC), the only umbrella for Indian organisations, has started collecting donations for the rehabilitation of flood-hit Kerala.
The Fund, floated with a special sanction from the Ministry of Social Development (MoSD), aims to collect donations from both citizens and expat Indians and other nationalities during the next three months.
"We have received a permission from the Ministry to generate a fund for aiding Kerala, which was ravaged by the recent floods in the torrential rains", said Dr Satish Nambiar, Chairman, ISC, adding thanks to the Ministry for the prompt response to the ISC request to collect donations.
Donations can be made either through a designated bank account of by physically paying at the special counter set up for the purpose at the ISC premises in Darsait. The set target is INR 50,000,000 (RO 274,637.60 approx).
These donations will be used to adopt one of the villages that is torn apart in the deluge and rebuild the same from basic infrastructure to a better stature than before, the executive members hoped.
Side by side, donating the fund to the Kerala Chief Minister's Disaster Relief Fund (CMDRF) is also under active consideration.
The whole donations will be subject to audit by an authorised audit firm and submitted to the MoSD before the fund can be transferred to the needy back home.
Similarly, all 6,500 members spread over 17 regional wings under the ISC umbrella would be requested to donate a minimum of RO 5 to the fund that too will add to the total targeted amount.
"We also have plans to conduct some socio-cultural gatherings to raise funds for the rehabilitation", Babu Rajendran, General Secretary, C M Sardar, Vice Chairman, and P M Jabir, Community Welfare Secretary added at the media briefing held at the ISC premises on Tuesday.
By KABEER YOUSUF
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